2 Test Dummies Fall Off Roller Coaster and Crash Into Hotel Roof

The Vice President of a Jersey Shore amusement park insists the ride is not to blame after two test dummies slipped off a roller coaster and crashed into the roof of a nearby hotel.

(Published Wednesday, May 1, 2019)

The vice president of a Jersey Shore amusement park insists that a roller coaster is safe more than a week after two test dummies fell out of it and crashed into the roof of a nearby hotel.

The incident occurred back on April 20 at Playland’s Castaway Cove in Ocean City, New Jersey. The GaleForce roller coaster was undergoing a routine safety check when two water-filled dummies fell off the ride and plummeted into the Ebb Tide Suites next door, damaging shingles and plywood.

No one was hurt during the incident. A roofer responded to the scene within an hour to make repairs and the test dummies were trashed, according to Brian Hartley, the Vice President of the theme park.

“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Hartley told NBC10.

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Hartley said the dummies had leaks that went undetected and they lost their mass and shape, causing them to fall.

“Obviously it’s not something that would ever happen with a person in it,” Hartley said. “You know you don’t lose rigidity in a person. The lap bar comes down. You’re secured in there.”

Hartley told NBC10 the ride is one hundred percent safe, despite the mishap.

“The lap bar did not fail,” he said. “Nothing failed on the ride at all.”

The GaleForce undergoes about two hours of testing every day that it's in operation and has been open since the incident, according to Hartley.

“Safety is our top priority,” he said. “It’s something we do every single day. We’re checking the rides in and out. We’re going to have to do a better job at checking those tubes and making sure there’s no leaks obviously, before we send them out.”

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